With celebratory verses on vegetables and vagueness; insects and alcohol; kippers, quantum physics and recycling, Matt Harvey’s keenly awaited second collection exuberantly reaffirms his status as someone who’s really good at this sort of thing.

Horticultural, whimsical, ecological, political and just plain funny, Where Earwigs Dare contains a rich biodiversity of verse – some recycled from Matt’s appearances on Radio 4’s Saturday Live and his stint writing Desktop Poetry for The Guardian, others that bubbled doggedly up of their own accord from a grim sense of joie de vivre.

There’s enough stuff about potatoes and leeks, about clouds, sheds and slugs to qualify as a Green Book – and enough about kippers and cows, pain relief, petty theft and public nudity to qualify as a typical Harvey offering.

There is also an introduction to Empath Man – contemporary superhero who fights crime through his advanced listening skills and ability to stay open and vulnerable in a tight situation.

Slug

The company of leeks

Cloud appreciation

A watched clock

Streaker

The full empathic mile

Through a glass hardly

Empath man

Think before you print this poem

Footprints

The innocent everyday ocean

About a bee

Water-cooler moments

Silence of the dominoes

Bubbles

The amazing memory man’s magical memories

My kind of town

Two-way domestic Totnestic acrostic

Jazz Geometry

Benediction

The whole potato

Oh Potato

Cows

Rob the Rubbish

Cuddling with humans

If I said you had a bit of a problem would you hold it against me?

Not tonight dear, I have a Blackberry

Don’t ask

Ballad of the tropical systematic botanist

The prune stone oracle [illustrated by David Hughes]

Where earwigs dare

Home

Bread

Present tense

Less is more

Kippers for life

On the tendency toward gender stereotyping among homeworkers

Wilfred from Ilford

The neither here or there man

Upturn for the turnip

Supermarket

Let them speak Latin

Works perks

Ho bloody ho

Mind the gap

Client of the Year

Wondermental things

Life is so much easier with effective analgesia

Fly

Charge of the late brigade

e-sonnet

Botox

Onward city moments

By 5pm Tuesday

"With wordplay, wistfulness, poignancy and po-faced cheek, Matt Harvey's second collection of poems is an amusing and rewarding read."

- Positive News - Winter 10/11

Matt Harvey

Poet, enemy of all that’s difficult and upsetting, Matt Harvey performs up and down the country at festivals, cabarets, conferences and colleges. He is founder of Wondermentalist, the comedy-infused, musically-enhanced slightly interactive poetry cabaret with resident superhero. His consuming interest in the core concerns of contemporary society has led him into many interesting shops.